"I Shot It" Photography Competition - Legit?

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

07/25/2012 06:44:43 PM · #102

Originally posted by Cory:

Originally posted by jovan91:

Originally posted by Cory:

Originally posted by lisalkee:
Semper: I am going to load some pics onto my portfolio, but I have a question...what size is best for the pics to be?

800 pixels on the longest side.

I prefer 765 on the long side. But it all comes down to personal preference.

Sorta... Except for the fact that if it is larger than 800 pixels, you will be wasting space in your portfolio, and DPC will force the image to fit in an 800 pixel wide box, which will remove the control that you want to have over sharpness.

Additionally, if it is smaller than 800 pixels, then you aren't taking advantage of the maximum amount of detail you can be sharing with us.

So, in truth, I'd say it's much more than just personal preference, wouldn't you?

As president Obama once said bigger isn't always better! But you have made some compeling points. I however still find that I am able to maintain optimal sharpness and image quality when saving for web if I do so at 765px on the long side.

Mike

Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Canon Mount

07/25/2012 07:41:05 PM · #103

Originally posted by lisalkee:

Semper: I am going to load some pics onto my portfolio, but I have a question...what size is best for the pics to be?

just so you know 800px long side is the max for a challenge entry. also you don't have unlimited portfolio space so i would also recommend a 300kb file size which is also a max for challenges.

Message edited by author 2012-07-25 19:41:36.

lisalkee

Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM

07/25/2012 07:48:21 PM · #104

Thanks guys! Another question...what is the little box beneath the pic for?....sorry, I haven't had time to read all the info about the site yet.

BrennanOB

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

07/25/2012 08:12:09 PM · #105

You are encouraged to add in information about the image, whatever you think people might want to know. Sometimes it is processing steps taken, sometimes it is where you took the picture from, or what is going on in the image. pretty much anything that might explain why you took the shot, or how you got it to look the way it does.

The more information you add to a shot, the more people can learn from it. In the lovely images you have posted, the clarity was very nice, so i was looking to see what lens you were using, but since you didn't put a lens into the photo information I didn't find out. It can be a PITA to fill in all that stuff when you are adding a portfolio image so I often skip it, but you are required to for challenges, and encouraged to make comments.

Message edited by author 2012-07-25 20:17:47.

Tamron 16-300mm Di II VC PZD MACRO w/Canon Nikon mount

07/25/2012 08:35:46 PM · #106

Well welcome

lisalkee

We are a dysfunctional family here, to say the least. We have all been going through a slightly, detrimental, ignoramus, inconsistent, drama filled , rough period these last few months, so you will have to excuse some of our suspicious behavior. We have been burnt a LOT recently.

I showed my ex partner (an Ornithologist for the last 25 years) your picture of your barn owl and he was stunned that you caught such an extremely rare, hardly ever-before seen owl in such a perfect symmetry position. He was so excited that he showed his mother (an Ornithologist for the last 45 years) and she was equally impressed. She told Sean that that is rarely possible but can once in a blue moon happen (and without expert editing and lack of Google proof images of such a pose to show him the it is!~ lol)

So he learnt something new today! You really should submit that to other 'bird forums' as it is amazing!

So welcome to our crazy world of DPC. We adore and protect our own , like a new mother and her cubs, but once you get over the initial shock, we are teddy bears. Unless you are

Cory, then you are a bear with honey all over your face a lot and wrangling him in from all sorts of trouble! hehehe.

(luv ya Cory!) =P

lisalkee

Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM

07/25/2012 09:04:41 PM · #107

Juliet: I can assure you I am no expert at editing...I only have LR3 and do very little...crop, clarity, sharpen, etc... I can post several more "before" pics of the owl to show the progression of it's turning it head back and forth and then flipping it upside down if you think you're ex & his mom would like to see them. I literally took hundreds of pics of this owl as it moved it's head around. This also was a captive owl.

Thanks for the welcome.

Brennan: I will try to add the lens info to my pics. I am just trying to figure out how to navigate the site and I am slightly computer challenged!

Message edited by author 2012-07-25 21:10:48.

Tamron 16-300mm Di II VC PZD MACRO w/Canon Nikon mount

07/25/2012 09:06:27 PM · #108

No, I think it is wonderful that you taught an 'old hat' a new thing today, I know I was chuckling into my cheerios!

ambaker

Google Glass Google Glass

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM

07/25/2012 11:04:28 PM · #109

Originally posted by lisalkee:

OK, this officially makes me feel that much worse! ;-)

Not an expert at editing.
Computer challenged.
And producing really, really good pictures. It's just not fair, I tell ya. I was one of the ones, last year, who was a skeptic about the contest. After seeing your images, it is obvious that they did not just hand out prizes at random. You earned it.

Very glad to have you around, and hope you will stay for a good long time.

Tamron 16-300mm Di II VC PZD MACRO w/Canon Nikon mount

07/25/2012 11:17:23 PM · #110

Is there 'friend, FB, Twitter etc voting though. If it is an honest to goodness vote by anyone and everyone, then so be it and WHOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. But like 293847529384629-34875234987502487562 competitions, is it like DPC, where it is somewhat voted fair and anonymous? The requests I get on FB for VOTE FOR ME so totally piss me off. How is that a fair and just way to see what is a good photo or what has been garnered by these other methods?

Not that I am saying that DPC is total honest voting, but it is damn close

Message edited by author 2012-07-25 23:20:09.

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

07/25/2012 11:22:56 PM · #111

Lisa,

Well, I just looked at what you've uploaded so far... I take it all back, you are not welcome around here, please go home now. (I'm scared of you.) ;)

Really, nice shots, I think you're going to be a fair bit of trouble around here, in the forums and the challenges, and I'm very pleased about that!

I would say that you really can improve your post processing some, as some stuff isn't quite DPC/Sharp-Smooth, but use a gentle touch, a bit of noise reduction, and a bit of sharpening, and you're there, frankly just using the Librodo sharpening technique would probably have done everything you needed, as your photos are already pretty darn great.

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

07/25/2012 11:23:54 PM · #112

Originally posted by JulietNN:

Seems like it's just two judges, but from the looks of things, it's really on the up and up.

Tamron 16-300mm Di II VC PZD MACRO w/Canon Nikon mount

07/26/2012 03:24:22 AM · #113

well I wish I had a $3 dollar picture that I thought was worth it to enter. =\

Urrrggghhhhh on self-doubt right now

Mike

Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Canon Mount

07/26/2012 07:44:38 AM · #114

Originally posted by Cory:

if it makes you fell better we already had a bird challenge a few weeks ago.

lisalkee

Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM

07/26/2012 08:00:55 AM · #115

Cory: I know my editing skills are lacking...I absolutely HATE editing and have not really learned LR3 to it's fullest. I try to do as little as possible and I know it shows. I guess I'll have to suck it up and learn more to be able to compete here. Haven't I already been a fair bit of trouble! I don't have Photoshop...if you know of any good tutorials for LR3 send them my way please.

Juliet: the free contests are voted on by people not judges..not like the payed ones which are by judges only...I made it clear on my FB photog site that I would NOT ask people to vote for me in any competition...I don't even tell people which ones I enter until it's over. I would rather lose than win only due to how many friends are voting for me. I have seen that happen before and the person did not deserve to win over other photogs whose work was far above hers. My owl pic was def not the best out of the 400+ pics entered. I think it won because of the unusual capture...thats all. I got lucky!

Ambaker: Thanks for the welcome!

Mike311: I'm sure there will be other bird comps... and I do other take pics of other things too...just haven't loaded any yet...but, I will admit I focus mostly on birds, bugs & blooms...maybe this site will challenge me to get out of my little box I am in...but, you may want to keep me locked in that box...you have already seen how much trouble I can stir up. LOL!

Message edited by author 2012-07-26 08:40:46.

Mike